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Health knowledge made personal
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Health knowledge made personal
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1 Comment
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I'm not sure than anyone is saying that the swine flu is not dangerous - that is, that it could be dangerous in some cases. There are people who are indeed having problems with it.
However, I'm not sure you can automatically conclude that a vaccination is going to prevent it, much less, saying that not getting one is going to "take a chance with someone’s health". I have not seen evidence that polio and smallpox vaccines have done any good. Sure, there's less polio than in the past, but there was also less polio than before the vaccinations were started. Then, there are declines of polio in place which did not have a vaccination program. So, automatic conclusions do not seem to be warranted any more than saying there's global warming because it seemed warmer than the year before.
Suppose these healthcare workers do get vaccinated. Does that guarantee they won't get the swine flu? What if they do get it? Does that mean they can keep working with the patients? If not, then wouldn't it be better to say those who have swine flu not to work with the patients than requiring a vaccination?
Find a peer reviewed scientific study which shows vaccinations work. I have found some showing either no change or higher incidence. But, it'd be nice to believe they do work. Makes life simpler if you can just take a pill or shot, but rather scary very dangerous if you rely on such methods and they don't work. There are some dangerous toxic ingredients that would be deterimental to take for a, "better safe than sorry", approach if the risk doesn't outweigh the benefits. Just hoping for the best isn't an outweighing benefit.
Better do some research and carefully think it through. Make it a brainer rather than a no-brainer.
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So, here’s my dilemma. I’m a big fan of vaccinations. Well, perhaps not a fan exactly but certainly a believer in their benefit. As a kid I got an armful of everything they had at the time from smallpox and TB to polio and measles etc. I still have the marks on my arm to prove it.
A couple of years ago when I was heading to Africa I walked into the Travel Medicine clinic and asked what immunizations I needed. The nurse asked me where I was going and when I told her I was going to Ethiopia she gleefully replied “Oh goody, you get the lot.” By that she meant yellow fever, typhoid, Hep A etc. Another armful.
But despite my willingness to throw my arm out there any time a nurse comes near me with a syringe I have never had a flu shot. This year that might have to change.
I haven’t had a flu shot because I suppose I didn’t think it was necessary. I’m – touch wood – very healthy and have never had the flu so I never really felt I needed the shot.
But this year I may end up getting not just the regular flu shot but also the swine flu one too – sorry, novel 2009 H1N1 vaccination. Why? Because my boss says I have to.
Actually, that’s not strictly true. Like a lot of hospitals, the one I work at is discussing whether or not to require all staff that have contact with patients to get vaccinated against H1N1. One San Francisco hospital, UCSF, has already decided that all its nurses and front line caregivers need to be vaccinated. A number of other hospitals around the U.S. have taken similar stances. Now it looks as if my hospital is thinking about going the same route.
Quite frankly I think it’s a sensible precaution. Unlike the avian flu scare of a few years ago we’ve already seen how rampantly and rapidly the H1N1 virus spreads, so this is no idle threat. We have also seen how it is most dangerous for people who usually do OK with the regular seasonal flu; namely pregnant women and young children.
Faced with the idea of putting anyone at risk I think it’s a relatively easy decision to make to be vaccinated. I know there are many fear mongers raising all sorts of alarms about the vaccine being untested and putting people at more risk than the virus itself. But that’s just – as my brother John would delicately put it – bovine scatology. There’s no evidence the vaccine is dangerous, while we know for a fact that H1N1 can be deadly.
The concerns about H1N1 may turn out to be a lot of worry about nothing at all. It may prove to be a big bust. Let’s hope so. But right now I don’t feel confident enough to say that is going to be the case to take a chance with someone’s health, particularly as I regularly come into contact with people at our Women’s and Children’s hospital.
I don’t feel I have the right to gamble with someone else’s life.
So, for me the decision to get the H1N1 vaccine is a no-brainer.
And yet, I’m still debating if I will roll up my other sleeve and get the seasonal flu shot as well. See what I mean about a dilemma, I’m happy to be vaccinated against a possible problem but unsure about getting vaccinated against a proven one.
What do you think?